Table 2.

National prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children and adolescents in selected EMR countries.

Country	Date of survey	Sample size	Sex	Age (year)	Definition	Overweight %	Obesity %	References
Bahrain	2006	336 396	M F	15–18 15–18	BMI/age ≥ 85P–<95P/≥95P (NHANES-1)	15.8 17.4	13.7 19.4	[23]
Egypt	2004	2969	M	10–18	BMI/age NCHS/CDC	11.5	6.5	[24]
		3049	F	10–18		15.2	7.7
Iran	2003-2004	10.253	M	6–18	IOTF	5.4	1.6	[25]
		10.858	F	6–18		5.9	1.3
Kuwait	2006	2657	M	10–14	IOTF	29.3	14.9	[26]
		2745	F	10–14		32.1	14.2
	2001–2005	1630	M	14–19	IOTF	18.8	24.8	[16]
		1611	F	14–19		25.3	20.0
Lebanon	1995-96	257	M	10–19	BMI/age (NHANES-1)	26.9	7.7	[27]
		336	F	10–19		14.7	2.9
Qatar	2003-2004	1056	M	6–9	IOTF	16.3	3.5	[28]
		2690	M	10–18		27.5	7.1
		1084	F	6–9		15.5	2.8
		2612	F	10–18		20.0	3.9
Saudi Arabia	2005	6149	M	5–12	BMI/age > 1SD/>2SD (WHO)	19.9	7.8	[29]
		5917	F	5–12		19.2	11.0
		3659	M	13–18		24.8	13.8
		3592	F	13–18		28.4	12.1
Tunisia	2005	1295	M	15–19	IOTF	17.4	4.1	[30]
		1577	F	15–19		20.4	4.4
UAE	2005	7741	M	10–19	IOTF	21.2	13.2	[31]
		7888	F	10–19		21.7	11.0